


The Place

by EdnaV



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Holding Hands, M/M, POV Aziraphale (Good Omens), Quote: We're On Our Own Side (Good Omens), Scene: The Bus Stop (Good Omens), all of them - Freeform, because that line broke me, the plot of this fic is: every word of that line, which line?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25757371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdnaV/pseuds/EdnaV
Summary: “You can stay at my place, if you like.”That’s what you said.“You can.”I never thought I could do something. Not really.I always tried to get away with everything — and I got away with so much.Aziraphale considers Crowley's words, and his own life.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 60
Collections: Name That Author Round Six





	The Place

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the GO Events server game Name That Author, Round Six: Full Feral. Prompt: No conversation’s a good place to start... I wanna speak in tongues (500 words or less).
> 
> Uncountable thankyous to my beta [nemnemz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nemnemz)!

_ “You can stay at my place, if you like.” _

That’s what you said.

**_“You can.”_ **

I never thought I could do something. Not really.

I always tried to get away with everything — and I got away with so much.

I got away with miracling our tickets for Hamilton.

I got away with having a bookshop.

I got away with our Arrangement.

I got away with keeping you in my life, and I got away with keeping you in my heart.

And now you’re making me an offer of something free and unconditional.

Are you telling me that I won’t have to hide?

**_“Stay.”_ **

I was never still.

I was always fidgeting. I was always scared.

You know how it is: they could be watching.

Sometimes I escaped into worldly pleasures: a record and a glass of wine and a sleight-of-hand — but it was just a stolen moment.

And now you promise: to be still, and to be safe.

Are you telling me that I won’t have to run?

**_“My place.”_ **

You always called it “the flat”. It wasn’t your place, it was just where you went back to, at the end of the day, when you were in London.

But now you call it “my place”.

The bookshop — that’s what we called “my place”.

The bookshop — that’s gone.

But we are still here, and suddenly there’s a new “my place”.

Are you telling me that you can have a home only if I’m there?

**_“If you like.”_ **

What I like. Does it really matter?

I’ve always enjoyed so many things: books and music and food and theatre and dancing and all those silver Regency snuffboxes.

But you’re not asking me if I like a thing.

You’re not even asking me if I’d like to spend the night in your flat.

We both know the word.

You’re asking me if I love you.

Don’t you know it by now?

And yet — temptation doesn’t count, everything that matters is in the choice, the consent, the act.

Are you asking me to put the ineffable into words?

But I still don’t dare to dream, and I find shelter into good manners, and good manners demand to check.

_ “I don’t know if my side would like that.” _

I never asked.

It was unbecoming of an angel to ask a demon for something. And I’m a coward, always afraid to speak. So I enforced our little code of fluttering eyelids and pouting and sighs.

Even now, I didn’t ask.

_ “We’re on our own side.” _

**_“Our own side.”_ **

Is this the place — “our own side?”

The home where I don’t have to run, I don’t have to hide, I don’t even have to ask?

You were always the one with an imagination. You talked about turning nuclear fusion into a star.

Are you turning the two of us into one?

_ I don’t say a word. _

_ I take your hand, and so I reply, I ask, I shout everything. _

**Author's Note:**

> [Would you like 100 words on the bus ride? Here they are.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23874796)
> 
> Don't be shy, make me smile, leave a comment!
> 
> You can also find me on Pillowfort and tumblr as EdnaV.


End file.
